Royal Caribbean Blog

Happy Sunday! It has been a busy week of Royal Caribbean news, and we have it all summarized for you in this round up.

Royal Caribbean's CEO Michael Bayley commented on a lot of different topics during a question and answer session this week onboard Harmony of the Seas.

Mr. Bayley held a question and answer session with cruisers to address questions and concerns.  In the nearly two hour event, a number of intriguing changes were announced, along with updates to topics of interest to many cruisers.

Royal Caribbean News

• Royal Caribbean announced a 50th birthday cruise celebration in 2019.
• The October 60% off second guest cruise promotion began earlier this week.
• A new video preview of some guests spaces on Spectrum of the Seas was released.
• Royal Caribbean also released a new batch of Spectrum of the Seas construction photos.
• Royal Caribbean trademarked its Oasis Class stern design.
• Metropolis of the Seas was trademarked, which may potentially be used as a ship name.
• Royal Caribbean extended its service agreement with Wärtsilä.
• Matt live blogged from Brilliance of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The 270th episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available, where Matt reviewed his recent cruise on Brilliance of the Seas.

Matt is back from a 4-night cruise on Brilliance of the Seas to the Western Caribbean, and he talks about what he did onboard the ship, as well as in Cozumel.  Matt also talked about trying out the ultimate dining package and deluxe beverage package.

Please feel free to subscribe via iTunes or RSS, and head over to rate and review the podcast on iTunes if you can! We’d appreciate it.

Royal Caribbean Around the Internet

USA Today compared Symphony of the Seas to the Disney Fantasy.

Traveling Dad shared what he packs for the the first day on Symphony of the Seas.

Tampa Bay Times reported on Port Tampa Bay reaching 1 million cruise passengers for the first time ever.

Cruise Trade News reported Jo Vaughton has been promoted at Royal Caribbean UK.

A heads up for anyone looking to use the Royal Caribbean website, as a maintenance downtime window has been scheduled for much of Sunday, October 7th.

Royal Caribbean has advised us that this weekend, from midnight Saturday until 6 pm Sunday evening, the Royal Caribbean website will be down.

Royal Caribbean says the downtime is for standard maintenance.

Every Friday we share Royal Caribbean cruise photos that our readers sent in, as a means of showcasing great photography and giving all of us a "virtual break" to enjoy the view of being on a cruise.  If you want to send in your photo, use this form and we could feature it in an upcoming post.

We begin with this photo of Explorer of the Seas near Dawes Glacier in Alaska, taken by Kathy Pfister.

Next up is a photo of Freedom of the Seas, as seen from the helipad.  Photo by Rob Young.

Krisztina Benko took this photo of the pool deck on Majesty of the Seas, while docked in Havana, Cuba.

A peek through the sliding doors on Grandeur of the Seas by Gwendolyn Salzman.

Joe Moran shared this photo of Freedom of the Seas, right after a rain shower passed by the ship.

Check out this shot by David Ep of Grandeur of the Seas and Allure of the Seas in Antigua.

Our last photo for this week is by Michael Bonham, and it is of Explorer of the Seas in Sydney Harbor, as seen from Bridgeclimb.

Thank you to everyone that shared their photos with us this week! If you want to share with us your photos, use this form to send them in!

Royal Caribbean has released a new set of construction photos to show off the progress being made on its next new cruise ship, Spectrum of the Seas.

Spectrum of the Seas under construction at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. The ship is scheduled to be delivered in April 2019.

Royal Caribbean's China website has posted a video that gives an artist rendering of a few of the venues on the cruise line's next cruise ship, Spectrum of the Seas.

Spectrum of the Seas will be the first Quantum Ultra Class cruise ship and is scheduled for delivery in 2019.

The ship will feature a number of firsts for a Royal Caribbean ship, including the cruise line’s first private enclave for suite guests, new stateroom categories, "innovative dining concepts", and "stunning features and experiences".

Thanks to Lloyd Marchand for alerting us to this video.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Wärtsilä have agreed to extended their existing service agreement to the year 2028. The original agreement, signed in 2013, spanned 10 years. Under the agreement, Wärtsilä is optimising maintenance efficiency through improved Turbocharger maintenance, providing OEM spare parts, workshop services and preferred technical assistance for 46 Royal Caribbean Cruises’ ships.

The partnership is to complement the RCL Global Marine in-house expertise with continuous improvement via various technical innovations and direct access to Wärtsilä’s technical expertise with continuous focus on safety and life cycle cost.

This new agreement between RCL and Wärtsilä, signed in June 2018, covers a total of 196 engines installed in 46 cruise ships, the majority of which sail in the Caribbean and Europe. The largest portion of RCL fleet of vessels is equipped with Wärtsilä’s condition monitoring technology, which transmits real-time information about engine condition to a Wärtsilä Expertise Centre for analysis. This allows for predictive maintenance planning and optimisation of operations.

“When it comes to maintenance planning and operations, the marine and cruise industry is moving more and more toward long-term partnerships. This is a natural direction, as it enables a holistic approach to vessel maintenance. A partner that understands the installation and optimises their condition throughout their lifecycle can help Royal Caribbean to enhance their business. Close cooperation is essential in such partnerships,” says Sean Carey, Service Unit Director North America, Wärtsilä Services.

Our newest podcast episode is out to help give you a quick "audio escape" to a Royal Caribbean cruise!

Episode 270 is available for downloading, where we share a review of our recent cruise on Royal caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas.

Matt just got back from a 4-night Western Caribbean cruise aboard Brilliance of the Seas and talks about what he did onboard and shared some of his favorite things about this ship.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 270. And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Stitcher or on iTunes!

Take a listen and as always, let us know what you think! Please rate and review the podcast on iTunes and leave your comments below!

Royal Caribbean has trademarked the name Metropolis of the Seas, which could possibly be used as a name of a future cruise ship.

The cruise line registered the trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on October 1, 2018.

Royal Caribbean trademarked three other possible cruise ship names in September. In addition, Apex of the Seas was registered in 2017 and is still a live trademark.

Royal Caribbean currently has four unnamed ships on order, in addition to Spectrum of the Seas.

The month of October has Royal Caribbean offering Buy One Guest, Get Second Guest 60% Off and 30% savings for third and fourth guests.

The Wave October sale runs between October 1 – 31, 2018 and is valid on sailings departing on or after November 1, 2018.

It inculdes:

• 60% off cruise fare of second guest booked in the same stateroom as first full-fare paying guest.
• 30% off cruise fare for third guests and higher booked in the same stateroom as the first two qualified guests.

As a bonus, cruises booked between October 1 – 6, 2018 may qualify for the Wander Now sale, where guests can get instant savings of up to $100 per stateroom determined by category booked and sailing length:

• On sailings 5 nights or less, $25 savings for Interior and Ocean View, $50 for Balconies and $75 for Suites.
• On sailing 6 nights or longer, $50 savings for Interior and Ocean View, $75 for Balconies and $100 for Suites.

Fall Bonus: provides instant savings of up to $100 per stateroom for those guests’ sailing between November 1, 2018 – December 17, 2018. Instant savings determined by category booked and sailing length:

• On sailings 5 nights or less, $25 savings for Interior and Ocean View, $50 for Balconies and $75 for Suites.
• On sailing 6 nights or longer, $50 savings for Interior and Ocean View, $75 for Balconies and $100 for Suite.

BOGO and Deck the Holidays Deals are combinable with Wander Now Sale, NRBD OBC, promotional OBCs, NextCruise offers, Instant Savings, restricted discounts (for example, Seniors, Residents, Military), Crown and Anchor discounts and Shareholder Benefits. Wander Now Sale is combinable with NRDB OBC, OBC, instant savings, NextCruise offers, restricted discounts (for example, Senior, Resident, Military) but not combinable with Shareholder benefits and Crown and Anchor discounts. All offers are not combinable with any other offer or promotion, including, but not limited to, Standard Group, Interline, Travel Agent, Travel Agent Friends and Family, Weekly Sales Events, Net Rates.

Offer available to residents of United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and select countries in the Caribbean. 

Royal Caribbean has filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the stern design of its Oasis Class ships.

The trademark was filed by the cruise line on September 24, 2018 and describes the unique design of an Oasis Class ship that includes the balcony staterooms, Ultimate Abyss and Royal Caribbean logo symbol.

Trademark design

Aft view of Harmony of the Seas

"The mark consists of the stern section of a cruise ship having a set of stylish oblong-shaped balconies on the left and right sides of the stern section, a pair of ornamental slides extending from the rear section of an decorative fish head to cascade downward to a lower deck of the cruise ship, and a pair of tusk-like structures extending upward from the top of a lower deck of the cruise ship, to a mid-deck level of the stern section, each tusk-like structure includes a set of stylish curved vertical beams intersecting near the top portion of the tusk-like structures, and an ornamental crown and anchor symbol suspended between the pair of tusk-like structures."

This is the second ship design element to be trademarked by Royal Caribbean in September.  Earlier in September, Royal Caribbean trademarked its smoke stack design.